A visit to a cabin in the countryside

On Friday night, our friends invited us over to the cabin they were staying at. Ever eager to socialize, I asked them if it was OK if we brought Pyrrha along. They were game, and so she came along for the nearly hour-long ride out to the country. It was a gorgeous day (as you can see from the photos) and we were happy to be outside, soaking it in.

Always vigilant, Pyrrha had to prowl around some before she could totally calm down. Once we were inside and eating dinner, however, she was quite calm under the table and didn’t beg excessively (even though those turkey bacon-grilled cheese sandwiches were extremely tempting).

Her exciting activity of the night was finding a baby snake under my shoe. Yes. Inside. While we were eating.

I noticed that she was sniffing around and pawing at my shoe. I looked down, to tell her to knock it off, and when I moved my foot, a tiny snake wiggled out from underneath my shoe. As a proper young woman, I let out a delicate scream and got up on my chair. This made Pyrrha even more excited about the little intruder. The menfolk proceeded to try various methods of getting it out of the house, and they finally succeeded, but Pyrrha was pretty jazzed by all of the hubbub. Tara, our hostess, didn’t want Pyrrha to leave until she had patrolled the whole cabin for other, potentially hidden serpents.

Patrolling around the cabin.

Aside from the snake, she didn’t necessarily do anything exciting or remarkable–but that’s what I find noteworthy. With every new venture and new experience, Pyrrha has exceeded my expectations. Yes, she’s still scared of many things; she still gets anxious around new people, especially men; she still puts her hackles up around new dogs… but she always behaves far better than I think she’s going to. I need to stop selling her short and believe that she can overcome her fears and act with happy confidence. Because sometimes she does. And it always thrills me.

Any dog who runs a snake of any kind off, ESPECIALLY from under my shoe, is a hero in my book! Pyrrha deserves a steak dinner if you ask me! It’s always great when our dogs surprise us in positive ways. I’m glad she was such a good girl!